MILWAUKEE SWITCHING DISTRICT

The Corporate name of the Carrier is Chicago, Mil­waukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company. At all times the Milwaukee portion of the above caption should not only be capitalized but should be shown in italics to stress the importance of the City of Mil­waukee to the Milwaukee Road.

Milwaukee is a city of some 750,000 people and when the suburbs are included runs well over a million in total population and its importance to the CMStP&P becomes more apparent.

For many years more steel was fabricated in the City of Milwaukee than in any other city in the United States, and this incidentally, includes the city of Detroit where automobiles are made. The metropolitan area of Milwaukee for all practical purposes is served by two Railroads, namely the Milwaukee and the Chicago and North Western, and we point with a great deal of pride to the fact that the Milwaukee has over a long period of years maintained about a 65 per cent pro­portion of the Milwaukee carloadings, both inbound and outbound. The city of Milwaukee is probably the most important single city on the entire CMStP&P Railroad. The position of the city of Milwaukee, incidentally, would be considerably enhanced business­wise should the proposed merger of the C&NW and the Milwaukee be effected in the not too distant future.

It is to be remembered of course that the Soo Line Railroad operates in and out of Milwaukee one train a day, and both the C&O Railroad and the Grand Trunk Railroad operate a car ferry service into the city of Milwaukee. We do not believe there is a metropolitan area in the entire United States that is as important to one railroad as the city of Milwaukee is to the CMStP&P RR.

The Milwaukee Road operates out of Milwaukee to and from Chicago on the Milwaukee Division, to and from Kansas City and Council Bluffs on the Milwaukee Division, (Old R&SW) to and from the Twin Cities and the Pacific North West via the LaCrosse Division, to the central important points of Wisconsin on the old Northern Division, including such important towns as Horicon, Beaver Dam, Ripon, Berlin, Fond duLac, and Oshkosh, and on the old Superior Division to and from towns along the Lake shore extending to Green Bay and northward to the lumber, paper and iron ore territory of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and to the old Wisconsin Valley Division which branches off at New Lisbon and serves such cities as Wisconsin Rapids, Wausau, Merrill and Tomahawk.

Milwaukee Terminal Division which does the s~itch­ing, interchange and various other duties in the area,

operates on an average of about 80 switch engines per work day, and consists of some 25 or 30 various industrial yards and train yards. The Milwaukee acts as agent for the C&O and handles all Soo Line busi­ness within Milwaukee under contract. Wayfreights are presently being operated on the Superior Division, Northern Division, LaCrosse and the Madison Divisions and as far as Rondout on the Milwaukee Division. Mil­waukee Terminals forward over the various divisions a considerable number of time freights. Generally speaking this is on a seven day week basis. Trains op­erated as follows :

No. 169 and 82 on the Superior Division. No. 67 and 82 on the Northern Division. Nos. 65 and 68, 75 and 86 on the R&SW. On the LaCrosse Nos. 69, 65, 266, 72, 263, 264, 261 and 262, and last but not least our newest Nos. 98 and 99 TOFC trains. On the Milwaukee Division between Chicago and Milwaukee Nos. 75, 86, 261, 262, 263 and 264, 98 and 99, 82, 65, 70, 63, 69 and 74. Also extras as might be required to handle the volume of business available at either Milwaukee or Chicago.

A very fine fleet of passenger trains operates be­tween various points on our Railroad, namely, Nos. 56, 4, 24, 12, 6, 46, 2 and No. 58 and in reverse as Nos. 27, 5, 3, 23, 9, 1 and 55.

You have before you a map, which shows simplified outline of the railroad area of the metropolitan city of Milwaukee.

Next to each Yard or District is the legend carrying the name of the yard, located in that particular area. The entrance into the Milwaukee metropolitan area from Chicago is at the upper far right comer and the first industrial area that comes to our attention is the so-called Bay View Yard area showing the Stowell and Bay View, and particularly the Jones Island sections. Jones Island of course is a large industrial complex operated for the inland waterways by the city of Milwaukee. From this port millions of tons of industrial products are shipped not only across the country by water but to many foreign ports. It is not unusual to see 8 to 10 flags of foreign nations and foreign shipping lines adorning the Milwaukee harbor area. On Jones Island we likewise interchange cars to the C&O Railroad and likewise at Bay View inter­change cars to the Grand Trunk Railroad. In these instances the railroads meaning car ferries. In the Bay View area we have such famous industries as the Heil Corporation, Nordberg Mfg. Company, Filer & Stowell, General Iron and Metal, the Louis Allis Com­pany and many others.

As you proceed to the left on your map you come to a division of the railroad and by proceeding west straight you come to the solely owned new Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE SWITCHING DISTRICT

Road Depot in which the Chicago and North Western Railroad is a joint user.

Since the CMStP&P Railroad is the contract mail hauler between Chicago and the Twin Cities, obviously Milwaukee due to its size is an important mail transfer point. A new Post Office building is presently being constructed just to the east and south of our depot which when completed will be five stories high and from a standpoint of area footage will be Milwaukee's largest building. From a point near the Fowler St. yard to the junction at the foot of the Canal yard, passenger trains operate to the so-called "Cut-Off" at which point the passenger main line joins with the freight main line. All along this area are various large indus­tries, and coal docks, exemplified by industries such as Geuder, Paeschke, Frey, and American Plumbing and Heating Co.

If you will go back to your map to that point where inbound trains arrive from Chicago, pass Jones Island and Bay View sectors you will note that one set of tracks drops down abruptly. In doing so this freight track goes by a section designated as our Reed Street yard, the destination of all fruit and perishable from Council Bluffs, Kansas City, and likewise the home of our freight houses, all presently leased to important freight forwarders, such as, Acme, Loop Distributors, Lifschultz, ABC Forwarders, Universal Carloading, National Carloading, and P&A Shippers. Many other industries are on the fringe and in the immediate vicinity of the Reed Street yard.

A large Elevator just off the extreme east end of the West Yard (Muskego) is owned and operated by the Cargill people, and familiarly known as Elevator "E."

Burnham Bridge is the terminology used for the east end of the West Yard, and here again on both sides of this yard we have large industrial complexes. At the west end of the West Yard, or south side of West Yard is the so-called Harvester District which contains some 25 or 30 industries, the largest of them being the International Harvester Company; there is also the Miller Compressing Company, several coal firms, several scrap paper firms, and building supply companies, featuring handling of brick, tile, plaster, etc.

On the left or north side of the West Yard is the huge Plankinton and Canal Yard industrial complexes. In this area are such industries as Armour Company, Universal Atlas Cement, coal firms, Marquette Cement Company.

As you approach the 27th Street Viaduct you ap­proach the junction of the freight and passenger main lines as indicated previously. Near here is the home of one of Milwaukee's largest industries, the · Falk

Corporation, and just west of the Falk plant is the huge Milwaukee Shops complex. It is here that heavy repairs are scheduled for the car and locomotive fleet of the entire system both freight and passenger. The car shops have the capacity for new car construction as well.

Let us take you back to the west end of West Yard (Muskego) where the Division Operating Offices of the Milwaukee Terminal Division are indicated.

Moving down the map to the west we arrive at the fully automated Airline Hump Yard, one of the first three constructed on the system, which serves as the eastbound train yard for the Milwaukee terminals. Services today out of Milwaukee eastbound are the best they have been in many many years.

Proceeding west on the Air Line you come to Soldiers Home yard where the track breaks out abruptly to the south or to your right, as you proceed west towards Madison. This is the so-called Menomonee Belt area and the total amount of revenue loads going to and from this highly concentrated industrial area is very substantial. It is an industrial area some 2 or 3 miles in length and is a joint operation of both the Milwaukee and the C&NW Railroad. Here are located some of the most famous names in industry, Harnischfeger Corporation, Krause Milling and Kurth Malting Company, Froedtert Malting Company, Inland Steel, Hot Point and the Chain Belt Company, to mention a few.

If we proceed directly south across Lincoln A venue on this Belt Line we end up in the Mitchell Yard of the C&NW Railway wherein cars are interchanged between the Milwaukee Road and the C&NW two times daily; the Milwaukee delivers their cars to the Mitchell Yard and the C&NW delivers their cars to the Air Line Yard of the Milwaukee.

From Soldiers Home Yard we move straight ahead (west) to the area of the City of West Allis. It is a city of heavy industry and its artisans and engineers and mechanics are famous all over the world for their ability to produce.

Some of the more important firms in the West Allis area of course are the Allis Chalmers Mfg. Company, Ryerson Steel, Pressed Steel Tank and others.

Let's now go back to Soldiers Home Yard and turn north to Blue Mound and New Blue Mound Yard just north of which is a junction. Here the passenger and the freight main line branch off again, one to the left going to the LaCrosse Division, and one to the right going to the old Northern and Superior Divisions (North Milwaukee). The LaCrosse Division from the junction

point at Grand Avenue leads to the city of Wauwatosa on the west and passes through an industrial district in the city which is served by wayfreights of the LaCrosse Division harboring such well-known firms as Sears Roebuck, Grede Foundries, and several building supply firms.

At the junction of the LaCrosse Division and the Northern and Superior Divisions referred to before we find one of Milwaukee's most important industries, the famous Miller Brewing Company and just to the north of the Miller Brewing Company, the well-known manu­facturer of motorcycles, the Harley Davidson Company.

As we proceed on the north line which is practically encased in industry we arrive at North Avenue which contains a small yard and a number of Milwaukee's industrial giants exemplified by the Master Lock Com­pany, the Koehring Company, and the start of the famous A. 0. Smith Corporation.

The A. 0. Smith plant could conceivably be the largest single industry on the entire Milwaukee system. The Glendale Yards territory is used exclusively for their cars. A. 0. Smith is a well diversified industry. They are the largest manufacturers of electrically welded pipe, General Motors and Chrysler automobile frames, cat walks for boxcars, Harvestore silos, hot water heaters, and other items.

At North Milwaukee, presently a part of Milwaukee, the Northern Division branches off towards Horicon, and the Superior Division branches off towards Green Bay. In this area are American Can, Gaylord Con­tainer, Waldorf Paper, lumber companies, American Bridge and Iron, and many more.

Branching off to the east (toward the top of your map) from North Milwauke is Milwaukee's famous

MILWAUKEE SWITCHING DISTRICT

"Beer Line." This line serves many industries, includ­ing Downing Box, American Motors, Inland Container, the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company and Pabst Brewing Company. There are also grain elevators, building supply firms, and manufacturing firms of many kinds.

We have saved for the end of our presentation the latest and newest of the Milwaukee Road's innova­tions, namely the over-night TOFC trains between the Twin Cities and Chicago, the TOFC facilities at (Piggy­back Park) Milwaukee. This you will recall was the subject matter of the recent "Red Vest" Campaign wherein the entire Milwaukee TOFC operation was covered by a special sales group to help inaugurate the initial operation of the TOFC trains. The TOFC strip in Milwaukee is located just east (or above) the shop area, almost directly in the center of the Milwaukee Terminals area. Presently at the TOFC strip we are using circus type loading and un­loading. Events of the past months have proven the present Milwaukee TOFC to be inadequate in area of usable space and management is presently engaged in first, locating, and secondly, building a new TOFC strip at Milwaukee at which time we may consider going to a dual operation of the TOFC track, namely, circus type ramp loading and Gantry crane operation such as presently is in use at Bensenville, Illinois. The rapid growth of Milwaukee TOFC business is directly a result of the "Blitz" Campaign used in its behalf as recently as September 1966.

We have endeavored to the best of our ability to give you a picture of the Milwaukee metropolitan area and its numerous industries and industrial complexes, and particularly indicate the tremendous part that is played by the Big "M" which in this instance can only mean one thing the big "M" in the CMStP&P Railroad.